This weekend in Aix en Provence the 11th annual INFINITI conference on International finance kicks off.

This is the first time we have had this conference outside Ireland. Alas, a persistent and ongoing lack of support and buy in (financial, delegate or otherwise) from local finance and regulatory bodies plus other factors mean that in the medium term it is unlikely to return.

We have an agreement to host it in Monash University Center in Prato in Italy in 2014/2016/2018 and are in discussions with other centers for the other years.

We have over 250 delegates with the top attending countries:

Germany – 41 delegates

France – 38 delegates

UK – 30 delegates

USA – 23 delegates

Ireland – 17 delegates

40% of the delegates are returning delegates; 60% have never attended an INFINITI before (although there’s the odd few who attended GFC 2005 which we held in TCD). 52% of returning delegates also attended last year.

The conference has two excellent keynote speakers: Rene Stulz of Ohio State and Geert Bekaert of Columbia.

We have three special sessions, on Sustainable Finance, on Pricing Structured Products and on the Macroeconomic effects of Financial and Banking Reform. We also have a session on Meet the Editors, for those perplexed about the editorial and reviewing process (this may include editors…). A special issue of Journal of Banking and Finance will also be produced, guest edited by my good self.

There are 71 scientific sessions and a series of ongoing poster presentations. Some of the session titles include

Like this:

For all your lovers of conferences on international finance, heres one coming up. Its eligible for CFA and ACA continual professional education credits. Thanks to Pioneer , IBM Institute for Business Value and Eventus for sponsorship. Here is a link to the latest draft.

Financial reform in Europe and the US is being led by macro economists and industry leaders who turn a blind eye both a regulatory capture and to the deleterious distribution effects it engenders. Although everyone agrees that regulators should control systemic risk, official definitions of systemic risk either the role that government officials play in generating it. Policymakers support of creative forms of risk-taking and their proclivity for absorbing losses in crisis situations encourages opportunist firms to foster and exploit incentive conflicts within the supervisory sector. To restore faith in the diligence, competence and integrity of officials responsible for managing financial safety net, reforms need to rework Information Systems and incentives in the government and financial sectors. The goal should be to align the incentives of private risk managers, accountants, credit rating firms, and government supervisors with those of ordinary citizens. Emphasising the ease of arbitrageur reforms that focus only on strengthening capital requirements, this paper proposes a program of complimentary ways of advancing towards the goal. The most important steps would be to measure regulatory performance in terms of its effect on taxpayer risk exposures and require insured institutions to develop information to support this effort. This entails estimating the explicit and implicit safety net benefits they receive and issuing extended liability securities designed to improve the accuracy of these estimates

As the global financial system continues to reform and rebuild, the industry is faced with a number of opportunities and challenges. More than ever before, the winners will be those organisations that find the ways to create competitive differentiation, deal with operational complexity and raise their risk and client management capabilities. The roundtable will discuss some of the core future themes for the financial services providers, including:• Where is value being added versus destroyed? • What will financial markets and leading financial institutions look like in 2020? • How will financial institutions compete in the new economic environment? • How will financial institutions regain the trust and mind-share of their clients? • What are the roles that academic and industry partnerships can play in the areas of thought leadership and analytics research in shaping the future of financial services?

Three broad views of the crisis will be discussed, in particular how financial institutions got themselves into so much trouble. The three views are “too big to fail”, “distorted compensation arrangements”, and “neglect of tail risk”. In particular, it will be argued that the third view provides the most coherent explanation of the various aspects of the crisis.